The Ides of March
by santeria
Summary: Something very weird and slightly disturbing is going on at Harbor... Takes place before The Graduates and Marissa's death.


FYI, my school really did do this, so I didn't make it completely up...

x x x x x x x x x x

**The Ides of March**

It was not a normal day at Harbor. At first, while walking down the hall, you'd probably think it was pretty normal, but eventually you'd notice. Maybe you'd see the kids with paper-white faces and black-ringed eyes walking past you but not saying a word. Or maybe you'd see the Grim Reaper slip into a classroom and whisk one of the students away.

But maybe I should start from the beginning...

x x x x x x x x x x

For a little over a week, signs had hung ominously in the hallways of Harbor High. They were very odd signs, too. One said: _March 15- Where are your classmates? _Another: _Beware the Ides of March_. Yet a third questioned _Did you arrive today?_

No one seemed to have any idea what the signs meant or what they were for. All they knew was that something was going to happen on March 15.

Seth was scared. As he and Ryan walked into school the morning of Thursday, March 15, he stayed close behind the blonde boy, and his eyes darted suspiciously around. "Something is off..." he observed quietly, "I don't know what it is, but something is definitely off...hmm...all the teachers are here, Dr. Kim doesn't look worried...a few students missing..." he kept muttering to himself, much to Ryan's chagrin. But Ryan, true to form, let Seth chatter on.

"Hey!" Summer and Marissa bounded up, looking cheerful and wide-awake. Ryan and Marissa hugged and kissed each other hello, and Summer attempted to hug Seth but he was so paranoid that she couldn't get a proper hello out of him.

During first period, a voice crackled over the intercom. Dr. Kim.

_Today is Grim Reaper Day. Every 32 minutes, someone dies in an impaired driving accident. As a tribute to them and to raise awareness, every 32 minutes the Grim Reaper will enter a classroom and 'kill' a student. That student will not be able to talk or communicate in any way for the rest of the day. It will be as if they are truly dead._

It was weird, to say the least. For starters, none of the students had been aware that there was such a thing as Grim Reaper Day, or that schools all across the country did this.

He had second period with Summer, and halfway during class she nudged his side and whispered, "Did you see Ciara die?"

"What?" He looked back to Ciara's seat, and saw that her face was now ghostly white with dark circles around her eyes. She was dressed in black.

"I didn't even know she'd left," he muttered. The Grim Reaper must have passed right by him and he hadn't even noticed.

"I didn't know they put make up on the dead people." Summer murmured. Ryan shrugged and went back to reading his textbook, though it was significantly harder to concentrate when a dead person was sitting two seats behind you.

At lunch, Ryan noticed that Seth looked even more freaked out than he had that morning. Seth was taking care to keep away from any of the dead people, and when he saw Ryan he scurried over to them and said anxiously, "It's like there are zombies all over the place." Summer rolled her eyes and started to mutter something about wimpy boyfriends, but Seth poked her in the arm and pointed. Summer and Ryan looked over to see Marissa. The three of them stared as she approached.

Ryan said, "You died?"

Marissa nodded. Seth took a step behind Ryan.

"No offense, Coop, but you look really creepy," Summer commented, and Marissa narrowed her eyes. Ryan privately agreed with Summer; Marissa being dead, even if it wasn't real death, was scaring him.

Marissa didn't talk for the rest of the day, though some people did talk to her.

After the last class of the day, Ryan went to his locker then tried calling Marissa's cell. He didn't know where she was. She didn't answer her cell, so he walked around trying to find her. When he got near the doors, he noticed that the crowd of students seemed especially thick. They seemed to be gathered around something. Curious, he pushed his way to the front of the crowd.

There were all the dead people, standing in a row in the hallway. Each of them stared straight ahead and didn't move, and each held a cardboard headstone that said their name, birth year, "death" year, and how they died. Marissa was standing right next to the Grim Reaper, whose face wasn't visible through the black hood it wore. The rest of the students stood in a semicircle around them; every once in a while a nervous student would edge cautiously past the dead people so they could get to the bathroom or something.

It was a very unnerving sight.

x x x x x x x x x x

That night, Ryan couldn't sleep. He couldn't get the image out of his head, the image of a dead Marissa standing there with her headstone. In his mind he could clearly see what was written on the headstone.

_Marissa Cooper_

_1988-2006_

_Killed by drunk driver_


End file.
